PUBG now has first-person servers in Oceania

Following a report earlier today that Oceania players wouldn't get access to dedicated first-person servers in PUBG for a while, the creators have announced that, actually, a dedicated server will launch today.

Apologising for the prolonged period of silence around the issue, the official announcement reads like this:

"We are pleased to announce that first-person only servers for DUO will now be available for players in Oceania. Starting from 3 pm KST / 3:30 pm ACST today, players will be able to enjoy FPP DUO on OCE servers. For SOLO and SQUAD, we plan to introduce FPP at a later stage when we have an increased user pool on OCE servers in order to ensure a pleasant experience for all Oceanic players."

The announcement also provides some more fleshed out reasons for the studio's previous reluctance. "One of our main concerns was the fact that it can affect the other group of players who do not play FPP. It has been proven by the data from other regions that we need at least 500 players for two game modes to ensure a reasonable matchmaking time. Currently, the number of concurrent users on OCE is sometimes lower than the threshold during certain times.

"According to our data, about 20% of the entire Oceanic player base plays FPP on servers in other regions. Adding another game mode now can make it difficult to sustain matches at all times. Furthermore, we will add a new map when we move out of Early Access later this year. All of these factors would result in a divided player base for each of these modes and ultimately affect the time required for matchmaking, especially in those regions with a smaller player base."

Whatever the case, player consternation in the Oceania region seems to have influenced the switch, so while only DUO is supported now, full support should come in the future. It's worth reading the whole announcement over here.

Shaun is PC Gamer’s Australian editor and news writer. He mostly plays platformers and RPGs, and keeps a close eye on anything of particular interest to antipodean audiences. He (rather obsessively) tracks the movements of the Doom modding community, too.